37-127

EP.127 The Decisive Battle for the Empire’s Fate (7) 

The moment Jennifer lost consciousness at Yuno’s hands, Eliza also gained the upper hand against Count Kashu, lightly cutting his arm. 

“Surrender. You know as well as I do that you have no chance of winning.” 

“Not yet… Not yet…!! I haven’t lost yet!!” 

Refusing to admit defeat, Count Kashu summoned all the mana from his mana core, raising his fighting spirit, but when he saw Yuno, Isabella, and the others moving to surround him, he flinched and stopped. 

“Grr… Just you wait, you traitors!!” 

In the end, Count Kashu signaled to a few of his personal knights and withdrew from the battlefield with them. Kurimu fired spirit-imbued arrows after him, but he still had enough strength to deflect them all and returned to his main camp. 

With Count Kashu fleeing, the other knights of Heinrich’s army who were not his direct subordinates surrendered to Yuno. Yuno accepted their surrender, fitted them all with mana-sealing magic orbs, and ordered his knights to escort them to the main camp. 

“Whew~ Thanks for coming, Sis, Mari, Kurimu, Miruku. If I’d stalled any longer with Viscount Amin, both Eliza and Master could have been in real danger.” 

“It’s fine. If anything, maybe that’s what let us capture Master Jennifer safely.” 

Isabella comforted Yuno, who was blaming himself, by nudging the now magic-suppressed Jennifer with her foot. 

“But she was really terrifying. I’ve only ever felt that kind of mana from Miri when she was out of control. How can a human hold that much mana?” 

“Exactly. No matter how much of a genius Master Jennifer is… there’s a limit to human mana. The four of us only managed to hold her off together it's unbelievable.” 

Even Kurimu shivered, feeling goosebumps at the amount of mana Jennifer wielded. 

“Cough, cough!! That’s probably because Jennifer sucked the life force from young boys,” said Count Lichtenauer, coughing as he sat up. 

“Count Lichtenauer! Are you okay?” 

“Master!! You’re awake!” 

Eliza and Mari rushed to support the coughing Lichtenauer. 

“Count Lichtenauer, is it really possible to extract life force like that?” 

“I don’t know if it’s possible by magic, but Jennifer said earlier that she fought gods and that the secret to her youth was stealing the source of people’s mana. That probably made her body young and amplified her mana as well.” 

At Lichtenauer’s answer, Isabella tilted her head. 

“But… Master always liked men, but not to this extent. Why did she become like this?” 

“That’s something I wonder too… She was always a bit selfish and stubborn, but not evil enough to do something like this. If she had been, I never would have married her.” 

At Lichtenauer’s firm response, Mari grinned mischievously. 

“She really does look beautiful when she’s asleep. Hehehe. But even if you’re divorced, seeing your ex-wife young again don’t you have any regrets, Count Lichtenauer?” 

“None at all. We only married because the late emperor introduced us, but there was never any love between us.” 

“Oh, Mari! You’re teasing even though you know Count Lichtenauer is dating one of Prince Prinz’s maids these days?” 

“Oh right! Maria, wasn’t it? Tall and quite pretty for a maid~ But isn’t there a huge age gap? Maria’s only twenty-three, so that’s almost thirty years apart!” 

Suddenly the topic turned to his love life, and Lichtenauer coughed awkwardly. 

“Ahem!! Lord Yuno! This is a battlefield! We don’t have time for this!” 

Prompted by Lichtenauer’s words, Yuno also came to his senses, handed over the subdued Jennifer and Viscount Amin to Lichtenauer for escort back to camp, and looked out over the battlefield. 

“Isabella, please use amplification magic. Mari, use a wind spirit to lift me up high.” 

“Oh, I’m out of mana, you really can’t do anything without your sister, huh? Hehe. But you have to go all out with me tonight, okay?” 

“Me too, Onii-chan!! I’ve missed your cock so much during all this war prep~” 

“Alright. I’ll take care of both of you plenty tonight, so don’t worry and just do it quickly.” 

At Yuno’s urging, Isabella cast amplification magic and Mari used a wind spirit to lift him high into the sky. 

“Whew~ This should do. Looks like our camp took some damage, but… Heinrich’s army suffered pretty badly too… Still, both sides’ left and right wings are intact, so that’s good.” 

Because he’d made a promise with the imperial corps commanders before the battle, and neither side wanted total annihilation, Yuno decided to persuade the enemy soldiers to surrender. 

To make sure his voice reached the whole battlefield, Yuno imbued his voice with mana and shouted loudly. 

“All soldiers, listen! I am Yuno Alexander Windrage von Balkan, Third Prince of the Empire! Count Kashu, Viscount Amin, and Tower Master Jennifer Heinrich’s trump cards have all been defeated by my hand!!” 

As Yuno’s proclamation that two masters and the archmage had been defeated rang out, Heinrich’s army began to murmur. 

‘What? All the masters are defeated? Even the Tower Master?’ 

‘Isn’t that a lie? Count Kashu is the empire’s second strongest master!!’ 

‘No, I saw Count Kashu return to camp looking like a wreck. And Viscount Amin and Jennifer haven’t come back at all.’ 

Indeed, just moments before, the thunderous sounds that had filled the battlefield had completely stopped, making Yuno’s words seem more credible. 

“Especially soldiers who served in the 1st, 4th, and 5th Corps you know what I did to capture Streve! You know how I risked everything for the empire!! Do you think I’m the kind of person who would betray this empire? Am I the traitor to the empire?!” 

At Yuno’s cry, the imperial legionaries stopped fighting and stared at him, and naturally, Prinz’s army also paused to look up at Yuno. 

“I, Yuno, swear on my name! The true traitor to the empire is not me or my brother Prinz, but Heinrich, who calls himself emperor!! He assassinated my father, Karl III, who led the empire to greatness, and took the throne he is the real traitor to the empire!!” 

As the imperial soldiers began to murmur, Yuno continued. 

“What is the state of the empire now? Under the degenerate emperor Heinrich, what has become of the empire?! Driven mad by power, he handed the Zenon Plains to Teseito to attack his own brothers, causing a severe food shortage throughout the empire. Even after the harvest, the people are starving, refugees are everywhere, and the imperial army isn’t even properly supplied!! Are you loyal to that degenerate emperor, or to the Balkan Empire itself?!” 

The real reason the imperial army wasn’t properly supplied was Mayer’s army wreaking havoc, but for the 1st and 4th Corps, who had marched for a week on half rations before reaching the east, Yuno’s speech struck a chord. 

“His Highness is right!! From now on, we’ll follow Prince Yuno!!” 

“The real traitor is Emperor Heinrich, who gave away Streve that we fought so hard to take!!” 

“We must follow Prince Yuno and defeat that degenerate emperor!!” 

‘In the end, what moves soldiers is food… Heinrich, you’re paying the price for neglecting the most important supply!!’ 

Smiling at the 1st and 4th Corps, Yuno accepted their oaths of loyalty. 

Some lower-ranking officers tried to stop them, but the momentum of the soldiers was unstoppable. 

In the end, the 1st and 4th Corps on the left and right flanks turned their spears around in response to Yuno’s speech, while the capital and 3rd Corps in the center looked around in confusion. 

The 3rd Corps, which had made it here from the eastern front thanks to the Windrage army holding off the Leon Kingdom, and the capital corps, which had been prioritized for supplies as the emperor’s direct force, didn’t feel Yuno’s speech as strongly and couldn’t believe their allies had turned. 

“Hey!! Why are you doing this all of a sudden?” 

“If we all work together, we can defeat the enemy! If we push the center just a bit more, we can win!!” 

Even as the capital and 3rd Corps tried to persuade them, the 1st and 4th Corps soldiers didn’t budge. 

“We don’t have any masters or archmages left, but Prince Yuno is a master how will you fight him?” 

“You haven’t fought a master’s army in ten years, so you don’t know the difference!” 

“If you want to die, die alone, idiots!!” 

“This is the true way to be loyal to the empire!!” 

The 1st and 4th Corps remembered well Yuno’s feat of breaking Streve’s gates alone. 

Still, the 1st and 4th Corps didn’t attack their former allies in the capital and 3rd Corps, and with Yuno’s tacit approval, Prinz’s army also stopped attacking, allowing the capital and 3rd Corps to safely retreat to their main camp.